Closing The Achievement Gap Education Essay

Closing The Achievement Gap Education Essay The American education experienced long and sustained period of school reforms filled with significant challenges. The policymakers as well as the governors made the school reform movement their top project priority since the 1980s (Sindelar, Shearer, Yendol-Hoppey Liebert, 2006). The school reform movement undergone profound achievements in the past and continues to tackle significant challenges although it has achieved its goal in creating changes to school conditions, student performance, and institutional policy. The National Governors Association for Best Practices is looking into the achievement gap challenge facing the schools today (Grant, 2009). This requires creating new policies and developing old policies to close in the achievement gap problems happening in several states. The policy primer discloses the nature of the achievement gap problem, its history, and the different states efforts to solve the existing problem. The primer also discusses alternative solutions and strategies at state level including important issues and factors to avoid in implementing solutions. Understanding the achievement gap context The achievement gap context is all about the differences one sees between people coming from different race and class (Chubb Loveless, 2002). There is an increasing difference concerning the performance of students coming from the disadvantaged minority as compared to the performance demonstrated by white students of the same grade level (Chubb Loveless, 2002). This achievement gap is a clear issue of racism and the effects of the power of the privilege. Educational institutions, educators, and policymakers face genuine lack of understanding creating and developing schools that can cope up with the context of a diversified society. The challenge goes on with the creation of correct policy that could help close the achievement gap. Federal response to the urgent persisting achievement gap problem The No Child Left Behind Act or NCLB is an attempt by the Federal government to close the achievement gap (Chamberlain, 2004). The policy set forth a new accountability practice for American schools to set the same standards with detailed plan for testing performance to ensure students meet preset standards of the schools. The framework of the NCLB allows a student to transfer to other schools located at the same district if he fails to pass the test performance set by the school. It is the responsibility of the school district to provide persistently failing students supplemental services as well as choices to study at other schools operating within the same district (Chamberlain, 2004). The school needs to demonstrate adequate progress about the problems of persistently failing students. Failure to show progress makes them open for state law corrective action (Chamberlain, 2004). The schools focus their performance targets based on the conditions of the students with disabilities a nd coming from disadvantaged family background. This includes students coming from ethnic or minority group that possess limited English language skills and proficiency. However, well performing schools are still required to alter school practices, policies, and governance to accelerate and enhance the educational experience of the disadvantaged group of students. The state considers a school as well performing only when they become successful in bridging the achievement gap. The intervention of the new Federal law on the educational scene has created quite a stir among schools struggling to meet the new set of policies and criteria. How do you measure the achievement gap? NCLB Act is clearly a Federal strategy to challenge the achievement gap brought by the effects and challenges of inequality among students in the US. Schools measure achievement gap by comparing African-American test scores and academic performance with the Hispanic group and white Americans using standard assessment tests (Chamberlain, 2004). Survey statistics gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reflected a narrow gap between Hispanic and African-American 17 year old students reading scores for the period 1975 to 1988 (US Commission on Civil Rights, 2004). The gap becomes wider or somehow constant in the areas of mathematics and reading during 1990 to 1999. The NAEP charts on achievement gap raised concern over the intelligence and skills of the disadvantaged minority students. The Education Trust analysis on the NAEP data bothered policymakers. It concluded that the grade 12 level disadvantaged minority students performed similar to the level of the s tudents studying four years behind them (Ferguson Mehta, 2004). The skills of the Latino and African-American 17 year old students are comparable to the skills possessed by the 13-year-old White students in the subjects of English, science, and mathematics (Ferguson Mehta, 2004). The educational attainment is another way to measure the achievement gap between races. The different ethnicities showed wider gap as to the highest educational level of attainment they had achieved in the past. The groups showed gaps in all discipline. Dropouts among African-American and Hispanic groups in high school are heavier even though the tuition fee rates are lower than those rates given to the Whites (Ferguson Mehta, 2004). The Whites show more effort in trying to get a college degree than the Blacks and Hispanic young adults. Policymakers and schools do not overstate the importance of achievement gaps but actually noted the big difference between Whites and other ethnic groups educational achievement specifically Hispanic and African-American groups (Chubb Loveless, 2002). The achievement gap is the outcome of local and national standard test measures between diversified groups of students mostly categorized by ethnicity and socioeconomic status (Chubb Loveless, 2002). The other forms of category applicable to the groups are their gender and ability. There are many ways that a school can measure the achievement gap between the groups such as test scores resulting from standardized test and average grades obtained by each group. The dropout rates, highest level of educational attainment, and population of college enrollees are other ways to measure the achievement gap between ethnicities (Strictland Alvermann, 2004). Although the results of this statistic survey came from different American states, the same thing is also happening with other countries. These achievement gaps noted across countries showed the possible effects brought by discrimination and social injustice. The government made a good move eradicating social discrimination. The move to bridge the achievement gap between ethnicities also responds to their effort to solve existing social discrimination at the same time. Eradicating the gap as a public policy would help eliminate the other problem of social discrimination. However, some people disagree that the core causes of the achievement gap come from a persons class, culture, or even biology. These people believe that policymakers can directly influence economics and education using progressive education based on multiculturalism. This idea is more effective in helping them achieve equality among ethnic groups. Identified factors causing the widening achievement gap Researchers do not have any clear idea about the real reason for the increasing achievement gap between ethnic groups. Structural as well as cultural factors played a major role to the widening discrepancy. Students lacking the cultural capital portrayed by the middle class are likely to show low academic scores and achievements especially if they experience little parental involvement concerning their education and home coursework (Strictland Alvermann, 2004). Annete Lareau stated that better resource students demonstrate more accomplishments in academics and life (Lareau, 2000). Other researchers believed that a persons ability to achieve more in life and academics largely depends on its socioeconomic condition and the classification of race from which he belongs. It is evident that students belonging to the disadvantaged minority suffer the adverse result of the achievement gap because they find themselves at a disadvantage position than the White students. Understanding the effects of the environment and culture to students performance The culture, traditions, beliefs, social roles, and environment of the student influence the students performance and are factors that need extra consideration and study when dealing with the core causes of achievement gap (Lareau, 2000). It would be for the researchers advantage that he should look into the lives, environment, economic condition, and practices of the disadvantaged minority to ascertain and identify specific cultural differences that can help explain the differences of the child-parent relationships between ethnic group families (Lareau, 2000). Cultural differences shaped the childs behavior and motivation to become achievers. The authors Jencks and Phillips argue that a child belonging to the Black family do not have much motivation and encouragement from their parents because of the lack of understanding about the benefits of education and obtaining academic skills (Jencks Phillips, 1998). The lack of awareness resulted to Black children going to school with littl e vocabularies than their White counterparts. Studies claimed that students with parental involvement such as homework assistance show more progress in school (De Carvalho, 2001). In comparison, the disadvantaged minority consists of single parents have to spend more of their time looking for money to cope up with their household economics and other needs rather than staying and getting involve with their childs homework (De Carvalho, 2001). The minority group also consists of parents that do not understand nor speak English well. The study points two major causes of the childs difficulty namely unavailable English speaker at home and lack of parental involvement for homework. Researchers highly believed that children from the minority group do not attend school because they are not willing to find themselves in comparison with the Whites and accused as behaving like the White children by their peers (De Carvalho, 2001). The children of the minority group simply lack the motivation and the understanding to pursue higher education because they do not see and believe the benefits and role of education in their future. They possess little understanding about the benefits that knowledge and higher education bring to their lives and how it could improve years of hard work (De Carvalho, 2001). The common minority behavior from lack of motivation to do better in school is plain rejection of the idea to achieve something more in their future. It is like giving up their potential and the ability to do more by not studying and working hard to make any progress in their social status as well as to receive higher wages. Furthermore, researchers found that schools often set up their performance measures based from the students knowledge as well as familiarity about the White group that belongs to the middle class cultural capital. It is obvious that the disadvantaged minority is not familiar about the middle class cultural capital background of the White group. Schools need to change their test for students performance and base it on their understanding of the subject matter. The test should be solely base on how they understand and perceive the subject they are taking. How structures of the institutions influence the students? Students coming from the disadvantaged minority group definitely go to schools categorized by the district as poorly funded schools (Danielson, 2002). Children belonging to low-income household attend poorly funded schools because it is the only affordable form of education. Schools belonging to the poorly funded school category have limited resources and employ teachers with less qualification (Danielson, 2002). Schools tried to solve the achievement gap between ethnicities by placing students in tracking education groups. The framework of the tracking education group assigns students within the same school into several groups base on their skills and academic abilities (Ansalone Biafora, 2004). The schools then tailored the teachers lesson plans to meet the varying requirements of the different sets of learners abilities (Ansalone Biafora, 2004). The strategy made dramatic progress to some learners. However, some schools based their grouping from the students cultural capital and socioeconomic status that results to the disadvantaged minority overly representing the lower educational group (Ansalone Biafora, 2004). This made schools placed the African-Americans and the Hispanic students into the lower educational group. Their perception about the minority group wrongly placed the African-Americans and the Hispanic students, which reflects practice of institutional racism (Ansalone Biafora, 2004). This confirms some researchers beliefs that the initiation of the tracking education groups implies the existence of racial segregation within the school system itself. Several studies performed on tracking education groups provided negative results. The implementation of the tracking education groups harmed the potential of the minority students to learn more skills because the teachers assigned to their groups are less qualified (Molnar, 2003). The curriculum design for the minority group is also less challenging and provides less opportunity for advancement in their academic fields. The peers as well as the teachers of the students belonging to the lower tracking educational group labeled them as slow learners. This greatly affected their self-confidence and motivation to continue their studies, which resulted to increasing minority school dropouts. Concerned psychologist claimed that the schools tracking groups outcomes might not be beneficial to all groups (Molnar, 2003). They cannot identify any lasting benefit to the grouping. Chapter 2 Rational The schools explanation over the creation of the tracking education widely varies. The goal to find applicable institutional and policy solutions to narrow the achievement gap gave birth to drafting education reforms. The categorization leads schools to provide remedial classes as well as tutoring sessions for identified less performing students. Strategies applied to narrow the ethnicities achievement gap The school provided tutoring sessions to the less advantaged and low performing students after school. They also offer remedial classes to help underperformers. The main problem noted with the categorization program is the pressure it gave to minority students. The program pushes minority students or underperformers to learn at a fast pace in an attempt to catch up with the performing groups usually comprise of their White counterparts. The catch up required more efforts from the teachers and gave much pressure to the students. The schools changed their categorization by race to grouping the students according to their ability. This new grouping criteria enabled schools to provide fair quality education for the students without considering ethnicity. The detracking scheme made schools and teachers perceive students equally (Burris Welner, 2005). This also made schools provide more teachers that are qualified to the different groups, design their curriculum appropriately, and provide more resources to the learners. Understanding the condition of the minority The Blacks and the Latinos usually describe the low-income minority of the United States (Aragon, 2000). These students usually come from poor families and comprise the less performing group in school. The schools can easily identify minority students based on their SAT scores. Minority students often obtain lower scores than their White peers (Aragon, 2000). The schools broke down their SAT scores according to their socioeconomic status. The results showed that the Blacks and the Latino students usually achieve lower SAT scores than the Whites. However, Asians still achieve higher SAT scores than their White peers who belong to the same family income level. The analysis of the authors Steven G. Rivkin and Eric A. Hanushek fully explained the core causes of the increasing achievement gap. In their book published last 2006, the authors discussed the effects of the schools effort to group the students according to their socioeconomics and ethnicity (Hanushek Rivkin, 2006). The racial concentration in certain groups created the unequal distribution of experienced teachers and the inexperienced teachers (Hanushek Rivkin, 2006). The study noted the increasing achievement gap in the grades 3 and grades 8 levels. Looking into the structure of the high performers that belongs to the minority group There are minority students who managed to excel in their grade levels. One great example of minority high performers is the students attending at Davidson Magnet School of Augusta, Georgia. The other school with minority high performers is the Amistad Academy located in New Haven, Connecticut. The schools strategically employ traditional and rigorous training instructions that include providing direct instruction to students. Researchers found direct instruction effective and efficient in developing the skill levels of the learners coming from the inner city of the research title Project Follow Through (Harris Graham, 2007). Black schools sometimes perform higher than their White counterparts do. The results of the annual test during the later part of the 19th century at Washington, DC can prove this claim. The Blacks performing higher than the Whites do continued until the middle of the 20th century. The M Street School gave quite a performance during this period by exceeding on the national standardized test. The author Carl L. Bankston III and his partner researcher Stephen J. Caldas claimed that the achievement gap causes the segregation of the schools in US (Caldas Bankston, 2005). The book titled A troubled dream: The promise and failure of school desegregation in Louisiana published in 2002 and the other book titled Forced to fail: The paradox of school desegregation published in 2005, clearly pointed that students benefit more when placed in the same school with high achieving students (Caldas Bankston, 2005). Their research also showed that students experienced academic disadvantage when they interact more with low achieving schoolmates. This proves their perception about the achievement gap as the core cause of school segregation. This means that parents played a major role and are greatly involve in the creation of school segregation for the fact that many parents even avoid sending their children to schools with larger minority student population (Caldas Bankston, 2005). Understanding the standards based form of education reform The standard based education reform based its classification by the education characteristics and income level of the student regardless of performance (US Commission on Civil Rights, 2004). Most schools in US decide to adopt the education reform. The policymakers believed that students regardless of race and gender have the potential to become achievers and receive higher pay levels. There is a need to study the content and context as well as the effects of the states education policy and compare them with the education policies of other nations. Improved performance is attainable using the standard based assessments with clear set of incentives such as examination for high school graduation (US Commission on Civil Rights, 2004). The student reforms of whole language, multiculturalism, affirmative action, block scheduling, desegregation, inquiry-based science, and reform mathematics were not successful in improving the achievements of the students. The recent NCLB legislation requires students to take annual testing and demonstrate progress at an acceptable rate every school year. The federal government imposed sanctions to schools with larger population of under performing students. Obviously, the schools having the greatest attendance of minority and poor students face the problems of coping up with the legislation and working on the skills of the students. Those who favored the traditional education claimed that the schools are not designing the education reforms in a constructive way because the reforms are not curriculum and student based. The IQ tests and the SAT are widely accepted as norm-referenced tests. Some people claimed the ACT as limiting chances for the minorities. Many people favored the standards based assessment because they have a clear definition and design of the criteria for the reference test (US Commission on Civil Rights, 2004). The criteria are acceptable and regarded as free from any cultural bias. The students can easily pass the reference test criteria. In 2006, states like the Washington questioned the effectiveness of the approach. The assessment became a mandatory requirement for graduation. Terry Bergeson, a Superintendent, believes that students coming from the disadvantaged minority can compete and are capable of achieving higher scores (Thomas, 2005). However, these minority students need additional help to perform more. MCAS in Massachusetts showed higher percentage of graduating students for all races. In the Fairtest point, there are still many minority students dropping out and performing less than the Whites and Asians. Although the Washington state has narrowed the achievement gap, researchers cannot find any conclusive evidence that the standard based reforms are effective in closing the achievement gap. The author of the book titled The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, looked into the point gaps and its relative improvement (Locke, 1995). His analysis implied that the test is theoretically easy to pass but actually difficult to answer. The test consists of open-response questions that are mostly problem solving, reading, writing, and mathematics. Minorities who fail the test are about twice or even four times than the population of the students that achieve high scores of the testing history. In 2006, only one sophomore student belonging to the minority group passed the standard test. One needs to pass WASL to obtain a diploma. The tasks of keeping American public schools from educational failure depends on how fast policymakers and educators provide efficient policies and effective structure of framework for teaching that can respond to the students individual differences and capabilities. There is a rising need for educational institutions to meet projected challenges posed by changing demographic trends and requirements. The most crucial part is the transmission of societal values from diversified students of differing religion, philosophy, history, and political context. The lack of understanding of each ethnic group values and culture endangers the opportunity of any education reform to work for the learners. Chapter 3 Significance of the problem The American Indian group always ranked below the Latino and the African American students in terms of graduation rates and standardized test scores. The three groups always showed significant numbers concerning dropout rates. The achievement gap persists in the US history. The study published in the Education week revealed that American Indian or Alaska Native students graduation rate is about 47.4 percent. The foundation of the couple Bill and Melinda Gates funded the study. The statistics showed that American Indians were 30 points below their White peers, which means that about half of the graduating students belonging to the minority failed. The Council of Chief State School Officers report in 2006 declared that the low attendance of American Indian students across the country is a significant problem among the states specifically West Mississippi (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2006). The persisting problem about the achievement gap of the African Americans, Hispanic, Asian Americans, and Caucasian students present a challenge to the present structure of public education (Zajda, 2005). The gap narrowed a little during the 1970s and the 1980s and then started to widen again in 1990. The gap persists to widen until today (Vanneman, Hamilton, Anderson Rahman, 2009). There were about 22% grades 4 White students who scored below the basic NAEP test for reading in 2007. The report also showed about 50% Hispanic and 54% Black students who obtained scores below the basic NAEP. There were about 16% White students at grades 8 who scored below the basic mark required to pass the reading test. There were about 42% Hispanic and 45% Black students performing below the basic mark required to pass the reading test. The wide achievement gap reflected in their math scores also. Some people argued that district resegregation across the states reinforced the rising disparity problems. This is especially true in the northern and southern districts (Kozol, 2005). The White parents enroll their children in high quality suburban schools while the African-American as well as the Hispanic families enroll their children in racially isolated schools. These racially isolated institutions normally provide school instruction of very low quality and normally face other types of problems (Zajda, 2005). The California state is the most affected state in the US. Jack OConnell, State Superintendent, considers the task of helping the minority as moral, economic, and ethical imperative (Gerston Christensen, 2009). The California Department of Education (2009) revealed the state needs to prepare and train the students especially the African-American and the Latino to compete in the global economy. This would make California gain a competitive edge over world economic leaders. The success of the task largely depends on how well the students respond to the NCLB standardized test. Taylor (2006) is the main advocate of the Critical Race Theory. He tried to bring awareness about the racial minority and institutionalized oppression hidden under the Federal as well as state policies. Although the Federal government created the NCLB in an attempt to bridge the achievement gap, Taylor claimed that the Federal regulation puts too much pressure over the educators and students in trying to improve academic performance. Taylor claimed that the movement did not correctly address the issues stated in The Colors of Poverty by Lin and Harris. Taylor claimed that putting pressure to perform better does not respond to the racial segregation practices and policies. People and policymakers do not even understand the occurrence and the consequence of the practices nor do they have the ability to reverse its occurrence (Taylor, 2006). Understanding the context of differentiated instruction Differentiated instruction makes students the center of learning and teaching based from the theory that students come to school bearing different skills implying unique differences on their learning needs (Tomlinson, 1999). The varying degrees of differences may refer to their personal and educational context, community or environment background, and academic skills. The educators under the differentiated instruction design and employ several methods of instruction that can facilitate the learning experiences of the diversified students in the classroom effectively. The goal is to match students skills to the resource materials in a qualitative manner. The program includes blending the needs of the whole class with the design of their individual instruction using effective approaches and methods to expedite the processing of knowledge, input and output, of the learners. This requires constant assessment of the students progress by their respective classroom teachers. Policymakers considered the differentiated instruction movement as a proactive approach to educational issues facing practitioners today (Tomlinson, 1999). The proactive approach makes the students become more comfortable in pursuing their education. Educators refine and tailor their instructions according to the needs of the students. This also entails adjusting the curriculum to fit the students academic needs. Teachers committed to this approach understand that the students they teach shape their teaching style and practically believe that students create awareness on teachers how to shape them. The students personality and learning style necessarily influence the instructors teaching philosophy and methods (Tomlinson, 1999). This is the only way to get through them and seems the only possible way that they get to learn things. Creating a model for differentiated instruction requires student centered approach that supports the key elements of interest, readiness, and learning profile (Allan Tomlinson, 2000). The Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, declared that people receive and learn more things when they are ready to learn these things (Daniels, 2001), which is the theory behind the differentiated instruction movement. The differentiated instruction approach matches the individuals interest and methods of learning. This approach supports the student interest, which is one of the key elements of differentiated instruction. Jerome Bruner claimed that the moment a teacher gains the interest of the student is the specific moment that a student starts to learn and the learning experience becomes more rewarding (Tomlinson Allan, 2000). The American psychologist who wrote about the multiple intelligence theory, Howard Gardner, claimed that a human being is a unique individual that possesses different levels of intelligence and perceives learning in different ways. This led him to suggest that schools need to look into the possibility of providing individual-centered approach. The framework tailors the curriculum to the intelligence and preferences of the child (Tomlinson Allan, 2000). This suggestion fits to the different student learning profile key element of differentiated instruction. The context of differentiated instruction supports and integrates the learning styles of the students to the conditions of their brain development. This constructivist learning theory details and analyzes the various factors that influence the readiness, intelligence preferences, and the interest of the students that motivate and engage them to learn at school (Anderson, 2007). Kathie Nunley, an educational psychologist, stated that the movement for differentiated instruction is crucial to the classroom makeover from the 1970s homogeneous groupings to the present heterogeneous learners (Nunley, 2006). Educators using the differentiated instruction approach are able to ascertain and meet the differing needs of the students, help each student in their learning process, and exceed expectations from established standards (Levy, 2008). Tomlinson believed that the need to implement differentiated instruction came from the fact that learners are unique individuals that vary in different ways. The student population is also fast becoming academically diverse, which presents higher probability that diversity will continue for a long time . Pre-assessment criteria for differentiated instruction The most crucial part of the differentiated instruction program is the assessment, identification, and determin

Distinctively Visual Essay

Composers create distinctively visual images to draw aspects that they are presenting in their texts. This helps the reader to understand and visualise the characters responses to significant aspects of life. The Author Henry Lawson uses these distinctive images in his short stories ‘The Drovers Wife’ and ‘The Loaded Dog’ to help portray the harsh realities of living in the Australian bush. These realities create significant experiences for the individuals in his stories as they are faced with hardships, mateship and love. Similarly, John Misto’s play ’The Shoe-Horn Sonta’ and Ramon Tongs ‘African Beggar’ use distinctively visual language to let the responder engage with the characters and their world. ‘The Loaded Dog’ explores the significant experience of mateship through the characters; Dave Regan, Jim Bently, Andy Page and their young retriever Tommy who is described with great visual imagery as an ‘overgrown pup, a big, foolish, four-footed mate, who was always slobbering round them and lashing their legs with his heavy tail that swung round like a stock-whip’. The story starts off slow introducing the gold mines that the story takes place in, using elaborate instructions to explain the process of mining and cartridge construction through verbs including ‘sewed’, ‘bound’ and ‘pasted’ which gives the reader a distinctively visual image of how life was for the gold miners. The author uses Australian jargon and vernacular language such as ’Don’t foller us!’ and ’no mucking around’ throughout the story to give the reader a more visual image of how the men of the area communicate. The story’s pace exponentially increases along with it’s humour as the storyline develops and as each complication arises. Dialogue and punctuation, such as ‘dashes’, carry us along with the action painting a picture in the readers mind of the events taking place. Dave who is seen as the ‘ideas man’ decides to create a cartridge to blow the local fish out of the water to eat and while he is at away at working on the cartridge, Tommy grabs the cartridge in his play, setting it alight in the fire, which establishes the main issue in the story. Lawson uses a humorous tone throughout this scene to give the reader a more visual image of what is being played out ‘close behind him, was the retriever with the cartridge in his mouth – wedged into his broadest and silliest grin’. Another short story composed by Lawson similar to ’The Loaded Dog’ entitled ‘The Drovers Wife’ creates powerful images through the use of distinctively visual language that enables the reader to feel the hardships of the characters. Lawson begins the story with the distinctively visual image of the harsh landscape ‘The bush consists of stunted, rotting native apple trees. No undergrowth, Nothing to relieve the eye save the darker green of a few she oaks which are sighing above the narrow waterless creek’. This descriptive language allows the responder to visualise the harsh outback scenery. The drovers wife is seen as a protective mother and a hardened battler against the disasters of the Australian bush. The use of alliteration ‘no undergrowth, nothing to relieve the eye†¦ nineteen miles to the nearest civilisation’ accentuates how isolated the Wife is from society. Lawson uses powerful verbs when creating a distinctively visual image in the responders mind in ‘The Drover’s Wife’. When the drover’s wife goes to hit the snake, ‘snatches’ is used to create images of immediacy and courage within the responder’s mind, whilst ‘darts’ is used to create an image of threat, the woman has no hesitation in hitting the snake and she darts to protect her children. Similar to John Lawson’s stories, John Misto’s Australian play ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonta’ uses an array of distinctively visual techniques to highlight the significant aspects of the story. Through dramatic film and editing techniques, and powerful dialogue, Misto explores the story of hundreds and thousands of women imprisoned by the Japanese in South-East Asia. The composer uses juxtaposition as the dialogue consists of both private and public conversations to create an image in the responders mind of the powerful links between the public and private voices between the two main characters, Sheila and Bridie. The opening scene shows Bridie re-enacting the kowtow, a tribute to the emperor of Japan ‘Bridie stands in a spotlight. She bows stiffly from the waist, and remains in this position.’ These stage directions allow the reader to visualise how Misto wants it to be performed, letting the reader share their experiences, and feel engaged with Bridie . Ramon Tong’s ‘African Beggar’ utilises distinctively visual language techniques to create and perceive a relationship with the persona and his  world and therefore understand the challenges he faces. The metaphor ‘a heap of verminous rags and matted hair’ is used to establish an image of a ‘thing’ rather than a human as ‘verminous’ is usually associated with flies and ‘matted hair’ creates images of an unhygienic lifestyles in the responders mind. The tone of the story suddenly changes in the third stanza and enables the reader to re-establish the relationship and perception that was previously created with the beggar. ‘lost in the trackless jungle of his pain’ is an example of symbolism used the show that the beggar feels pain in his whole body. This stanza creates an image of someone struggling for life and gives reason for the reader to feel sympathetic towards the beggar, this is highlighted in the line ‘lying all alone’. In conclusion, these texts all use powerful distinctively visual techniques to the let the reader understand and visualise the personas and their worlds, and the hardships that they face.

Alfred Adler: Personality Theories Essay

I learned a lot regarding personality psychology during my helping plan project that involved the offering of psychological assistance to a teen in foster care that was laden with several psychological problems emanating from separation and loss of loved ones. The experience gave me a deeper insight into the theory of self and others as part of personality identity. For instance, the client (Y) had all the reasons to portray the behavior traits that she exhibited before the intervention program, simply because her perception of self relative to others led her into forming an inferior perception on herself (inferiority complex). [Ansbacher & Ansbacher (Eds. ) (1956)] A quick summary of the client life indicates that, despite being young (15 years) and from a minority group (Hispanics) she had lived in foster care system for more than six years, her other time was spend with family members and extended family since she was six years. She and her brother have about one year without seeing their mother since she (mother) has been in and out of jail due to drug related cases. Her aunt placed her and her brother in foster care because she could not afford to take care of them. She has been into four foster care homes and three different schools in a period of two years; she has also been living in four different demographic areas. Generally, the client was experiencing a lot of difficulties in coping to her new placement: she showed defiant behaviors to the foster care workers, she has severally expressed her resentment for being in a foster home, and she cannot explain the reason as to why she cannot live with her family members instead of other people’s family. Based on the self and others perspective, there may have existed the hope that the client would one day grow out of her aggressive behavior as she was still young, however, my helping plan was guided by Adlerian theory of personality that holds that idealistic plans for adulthood are often formed early in one’s life: powerful positive or negative experiences [at a young age impacts one future life, for example he (Adler) loosed his young brother aged three years, as a result he vowed to overcome death, he became a doctor in later years. My assessment of the clients’ problems revealed that they were serious and therefore demanded a holistic approach that would fix them once and for all and give the client a reason to smile and be happy by helping her, create, nurture, and exhibit positive attitude towards life. The ABC model that was used to solve the clients problems can be said to be holistic: it investigated the causal agents to the clients’ problems (separation and losses), it helped her to build a strong believe about the behavior that leads to the problems, and it enabled her to see the consequent of such behaviors were environmentally entrenched. Holistic approach was one of the calling cards that defined Adlerian theories of personality psychology. The helping plan objectives were measurable and achievable and prototype to Adlerian theory of Individual Psychology. In developing the theory Adler, was deeply intrigued by the early life of Theodore Roosevelt, which was characterized by several bouts of sicknesses such as diarrhea, nausea, coughs, fever, thinness, nearsightedness, and other sorts of severe illnesses. Again, Adler early life at home and in school was full of setbacks, he had to spend four years before learning how to walk due an attack of rickets, in school he was a below average student: nevertheless he became a medical doctor in his future life. My client was young and faced with deprivation of close family members, as a result she loosed interest in life: she did not conceptualize the reason as why other children of her age were enjoying their parental love while did not. Therefore, my helping plan created what Adler refereed to as motivational force the striving for perfection: the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal – the idea of self-actualization, self-actualization because it was designed to teach the client new strategies of dealing and overcoming hurt and anger. The clients, problem can be interpreted as emanating from the uniqueness with which every individual has in respect to others. According to Adler’s Individual Psychology, four aspects define the personality growth of individuals. These aspects are: the development of personality, striving towards superiority, psychological health, and unity of personality. In efforts to strive for perfection, sometimes people are haunted by the feeling that they are inferior to others (inferiority complex): the lack of self-worth. This feelings gets into an individuals mind when he or she perceives his environment to be inadequate to help in striving to reach a goal by attainment of which will make us feel strong, superior, and complete. This is the exact situation that the client Y seemed to be in, she wanted to be accorded parental love just as other children, she wanted to live with her members of family just as other children did, but being in a foster care home made realize that she was more inferior to those other children as her efforts to behave indifferently only worsened her situation – moving from one foster care home to another. The intervention program was meant to help the client to move from this inferiority to complex to a better place that would enable her to build a positive attitude in life: the superiority complex. According to Adler, people are always trying to overcome the feelings of inferiority and replace them with superiority complex feelings. The intervention program’s model and tactics used in inputting and outputting important information from the client led to what Adler claimed to be fictional finalism. It tried to induce a clear sense of direction to making decisions that concerns the client wellbeing as a foster care home member. The client knew very well that her mother was in jail and that her aunt could not afford to take care of her and her brother, but she continued agonizing and making her life in the foster care homes more difficult. The intervention helped to create what Adler termed as mental phenomenon that helps an individual in discovering new characteristic pursuits of goals, powers, faculties, experiences, wishes and fears, defects and capacities. Both conscious and unconscious faculties of the client were utilized throughout the intervention program, in the stages of information extraction and coping strategy teaching, this steered the client into the final fictional finalism stage. Adler declared that each individual has an incomparable way of life, some people are negative while others are positive, this was fulfilled in the intervention’s careful measures of evaluation (both formative and summative) were aimed at accommodating and modifying the intervention where necessary in order to suit the individual uniqueness of the client. Again, the rigorous information extraction and coping strategy imparting is a prototype to Alderian methods of individual psychology. Alderians are known to excavate the clients past in view of altering his or her future by increasing the integration into community in the ‘here-and-now. ’ This approach leads to the creation of holistic individuals who boasts of having healthy personalities free from dysfunctions. According to Adler, human psychology is psychodynamic in nature, yet it is guided by goals and fuelled by yet to be known creative forces. These goals have a â€Å"teleological† function, in that, they are fictional. The inferiority/superiority dynamic is constantly at work during the process of shaping human psychology. This is achieved through numerous compensation and over-compensation which comes in varying forms. This is exactly what I learned during my roles as a helper in the intervention program. For instance, the intervention program’s core goal was to help the client develop and practice worthwhile strategies of coping with anger and anxiety in their stay in foster care homes. In his work, Adler argued that human personality can be explained in a teleological manner: the separate strands that are characterized by dominance in the urge to invoke individuals’ unconscious self ideal to convert the feelings of inferiority to superiority and ultimately to fictional finalism. The intervention program provided the teleological space to understand the client personality and hence strive to induce the conscience ideal for the conversion of inferiority feelings to superiority feelings and ultimately the fictional finalism. The three foot tosses (what matters to the client now? Where the client is as it relate to what matters? What the client is willing to do to move forward the indented direction? ), used in the study helped to come up with the correct strategies for coping in foster care home life, and in offering the appropriate dose of compensation that was able to induce the conscience to convert the feelings of inferiority to those of superiority. Just as Adler contended, if corrective factors were disregarded and the individual over-compensated, then an inferiority complex would occur that would foster the danger of the individual becoming power-hungry, egocentric, aggressive or even worse than he or she was before the intervention program, and hence, the notion that the fictive final goal of an intervention program can serve as a persecutory tool. The intervention results indicated that, the client benefited greatly: she could carry out with her normal chores, she related well with the foster care home’s helpers, she loosened up, and above all she was now ready to explore areas of life that she was in denial and distorted. This confirmed what Adler termed as social feeling or community feeling. It also further displayed the importance of holism in personality psychology, as no one can achieve perfection without putting into active consideration his or her social environment. Again, his arguments on social interest were that it is neither inborn nor learned but it is a combination of both. In an innate perspective one can display social interest when he or she smiles when others do so, or a baby showing sympathy for others even without having been taught so. The self and other phenomenon is displayed through the styles of life adopted by individuals. As social beings, human do not exist, they much less thrive, without others, and even the most resolute people-hater formed that hatred in a social context. Adler clarified that the process of compensation, correction, and conversion of inferiority feelings to superiority ones is more than just talking about a persons personality, rather, it entails the style of life of that particular individual. The style of life or just lifestyle is how one live his or her life, how he or she handle problems and interpersonal relations. For instance, the lifestyle of a tree is the individuality of the tree expressing itself and molding itself in an environment. We recognize a tree when we see it against a background of an environment different from what we expect, for then we realize that every tree has a life pattern and is not merely a mechanical reaction to the environment. † Through what can be termed as beautiful methods of relating between a counselor and client, I was able to impart the client with strategies that helped her to respond to the inferiorities that were inherent in her life. This what Adler referred to as compensation: to make up for ones deficiencies in some way. The client learned that the environment that she was leaving in was responsible for her problems, and that her predicaments had nothing to do with foster care homes, her family or other people. This client understood her environment was responsible for her predicaments, this helped her learn to put at watch her anger and anxiety. From a self and others perspective, I gained an insight into Adler’s birth order theory by relating with client Y in the intervention. According to the theory, firstborns are usually pampered before the arrival of second born who ‘dethrones’ them of that status. The young born tend to be overindulged leading to poor social empathy. In a family of three children, the first born tend to suffer a lot as he take scare of the other siblings despite losing the pampered status they once enjoyed, the middle born are not affected by either pampering or overindulgence and therefore they end up being successful in life. Being the first born and having only one sibling, a younger brother, speaks volumes of her problems. The fact that she started living with her aunt at the age of six years and that, her mother has been in and out of jails and has been on drugs most of her life, indicates that she hardly experienced enough parental love. Being the first born means that she was once loved and pampered before the arrival of her brother who according to Adler dethroned her. Again, the fact that she has lived in four demographic areas, shows that, her young life was full of inconsistencies. Her behavior could be explained by the fact that the responsibilities of looking after her brother rests in her shoulders. A combination of factors explains this: the absence of her mother (in jail) and family members and her being the firstborn with a younger brother that lives with her in the foster care home. This knowledge helped me to facilitate the correct doses for compensation, and hence the success of the intervention, just as Adler once asserted that, â€Å"It is easier to fight for one’s principles than live up to them. † The success of the intervention program was as a result of my assuming the traits of a buddy, confidant, showing genuine interest, respecting her, accepting her, supporting her, etc. The tactics that is employed in the interventions are a prototype to Adler’s mode of offering therapy was that of two chairs rather a couch, whereby the client and the counselor sat facing one another. His was democratic affair unlike autocratic, he contended that, therapists should never allow their patients to force them into assuming the role of an authoritarian figure, since this will allow the patient to play games that he or she might have played before such as setting the therapist as a savior only to pounce on him when he starts revealing his humanness. He viewed the failing to turn up for appointments, becoming stubborn or demanding special favors by patients as lack of courage to give up their neurotic behaviors. Patients should not be forced into understanding their lifestyles but rather should be brought into a state of feeling that they are listening and hence they can understand. The therapist should also encourage the patient, by developing a genuine human relationship. [pp. 335] References: Adler, A. (1956). The Individual Psychology, of Alfred Adler. H. L. Ansbacher & R. R. Ansbacher (Eds. ) New York: Harper Torchbooks, accessed on April 4, 2009

Religion, Superstition Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

|HIST208-13B (HAM) | |Religion, Superstition Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe | Early Medieval Period: Mid-5th – mid 9thC (c.450-850CE) Augustine died in 430 as the Vandals were besieging his city of Hippo. Some 20 years before, Rome had fallen. In the West the ancient empire was a thing of the past; in its place a variety of `barbarian kingdoms’, although for the most part considering themselves a part of the Roman Empire. New circumstances called for re-appraisal of the church: its position and purposes. A pragmatic response to changed†¦show more content†¦Catholicity unity are co-equal marks of true church along with holiness. 4. Augustine: developed and refined Optatus on the Donatists. Identified the Church as the body of Christ with the Catholic Church of his day, with its hierarchy and sacraments, and with its centre in Rome. Thus Augustine underlines catholicity: this is the distinguishing factor which marks the ‘true church’ from merely localised sects. 3 specific views of Augustine on the Church: i) Basically holds concept of the Christian society of Christ’s mystical body. [Christ has triple mode of existence: eternal Word; God-man mediator; the Church of which he is head the faithful the members.] ii) Church unity follows logically from fellowship of love. Members of one body; unity of belief - hence heresy a breach of unity, not just difference of opinion. Antithesis of love is the spirit that promotes schism. iii) On biblical grounds the Church is a community of both saints sinners. Separation only comes at final judgement. Therefore ‘two’ churches: the essential/invisible church contained within the outward empirical church. (To what extent did this distinction allow for the development of corruption within the empirical church?) Challenges to Primacy of Rome: The East on Rome Crucial question: Whether or not this undoubted primacy ofShow MoreRelatedWitchcraft And Superstition In Medieval Europe1654 Words   |  7 PagesWitchcraft and superstition in Medieval Europe The concept of witchcraft and superstition stretches over a long period of time. The idea became familiar around 560 B.C when the two old testaments denounced witches and the belief in them. The idea is said to have originated in Europe, rapidly spreading around the world. Medieval Europe was an era that solely believed in magic, witches and the supernatural. In the Middle Ages witchcraft was viewed as a heinous crime that was punishable by deathRead MoreEssay on Magic and Superstition in the Middle Ages3515 Words   |  15 PagesSuperstitions have influenced the lives of human beings perhaps since the beginning of mankind. For millennia, people have clung to beliefs and practices surrounding preternatural activities. 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